The Real Hero
by Ms. Tenacious
Summary: Snow has always believed that he was the hero, but Lightning thinks he needs to realize that there are heroes in the world other than him.  They get into a violent fight with a Pulsian beast, but who will be the hero in the end?


The Real Hero

Snow had always believed that he was the hero in everybody's eyes, and if not in other people's eyes, he was _his own_ personal hero. Serah had humored him, calling him her hero. Even when she was about to turn to crystal she whispered "my hero" to him.

All of the l'Cie had played along and let him do his cheesy battle cries, letting him take responsibility for the good things that happened to them. But one day on Gran Pulse, Lightning intended to prove him wrong, show him that there were heroes other than him in the world.

The group was venturing in no particular direction on the Northern Highplain of the Archylte Steppe. They were having little trouble that day other than those pesky Goblins. Lightning spotted something in the distance, something that would challenge Snow but be a piece of cake for herself.

"Hey, Snow," she called, making the giant trot to her side.

"Yeah, Light?"

"See that monster up there?" Lightning asked, pointing in the direction of the creature on the horizon.

Snow analyzed the beast and he beamed. "On it," he said matter-of-factly and started to sprint in its direction. Lightning smirked and followed at a slower pace.

Vanille was watching curiously from behind. "Where are they going?"

Sazh looked up from the chocobo chick cradled in his hands. He sighed. "Probably getting into trouble. Snow's good at that, but I don't know why Lightning's tagging along," Sazh grumbled.

"Getting into trouble, eh? Count me in," Fang cheered and ran after them.

Vanille watched her friend go and sprang after her with her hands waving frantically. "Fang! Wait for me!"

Hope watched wide eyed as his mentor was about to lunge herself into a dangerous situation for no apparent reason, going against almost everything she had taught him. He felt Sazh clap him on the shoulder.

"Better make sure they don't hurt themselves," he groused. Sazh gave a small nod to Hope and started to walk toward the rest of the group.

Hope was left no choice but to follow and pray silently to a higher power to keep Lightning and the rest of his friends out of harm's way.

Snow was already in hearing distance of the beast. He beat his fists together with confidence. "Megistotherian. Nothing I can't handle." Snow let loose a snarl and charged head first into the beast's vision. The two giants made eye contact and the Megistotherian roared. It swiped a massive paw at Snow. Snow dodged smoothly and threw a fist toward the beast.

Lightning caught up to them right as Snow was getting knocked off his feet from the beast's perfectly timed counter attack. She shook her head and unsheathed her weapon, preparing to jump into the fight. Lightning waited until the Megistotherian was about to land the finishing blow on Snow before she fired a single bullet at the monster's shoulder. "Over here, big guy!" she taunted.

The beast showed its teeth making Lightning smile menacingly at it. A snarl ripped out of the creature's throat and it pounced at Lightning who back flipped gracefully out of the way. Snow had gotten up and was determined to make up for his lack of strategy. He chucked a large stone at the beast and it whirled around to face him.

"Over here!" Snow shouted.

Lightning gritted her teeth. This kill was hers. She ran up behind the Megistotherian, grasped the end of its tail, and yanked with all of her might. The fiend yelped but was stopped abruptly as Snow clutched onto its muzzle.

"Lay off, Lightning! I've got this one!" he managed to yell between his struggled grunts.

"We'll see about that," Lightning said to herself and pulled harder on the monster's tail. It threw its head back in agony and sent Snow flying through the air. He landed roughly into Fang who had just appeared on the scene. Fang let out a line of harsh swear words and shoved Snow off of her. Lightning didn't see this because now she had the beast's full attention and it was giving her its all.

Fang was on her feet in an instant. "Let me help, Light!" she hollered and ran up behind Lightning, ready to help.

"Get out of the way!" Lightning exclaimed and dodged something that Fang couldn't see. Fang wheezed as she inhaled the thick, poisonous smoke that had come out of the Megistotherian. She coughed roughly and fell to the ground. Lightning was too busy jabbing at the monster with her gunblade to pay any attention to Fang.

"Fang!" Vanille screeched as she came onto the scene. She ran next to the raven-haired woman and immediately started casting Esuna on Fang. Vanille paid no attention to Lightning or the monster she was diligently fighting.

Sazh was gasping by the time he caught up with everyone and collapsed to the ground when he knew he was close enough for his friends to find him if he happened to die by the time they were finished.

Lightning was getting tired and was starting to get sluggish with her movements. The Megistotherian managed to strike her with enough force to send her crashing to the ground. She lay there for a few moments as she regained her strength. She got shakily to her feet and her eyes widened as she saw the monster starting to run toward Snow with clear intentions of killing him. "Snow!" she shouted, fear clouding her face. She sprinted toward the beast while roaring a battle cry.

Snow opened his eyes slowly as he regained consciousness. He sat up slowly. "Holy-!" he started as he caught sight of the fiend running toward him. He snapped his eyes shut and put his hands up in an attempt to protect his face. When nothing happened for several moments he slowly peeked at the scene. Standing in front of him was the Megistotherian in a position that clearly showed that it was going to attack. Snow blinked and it fell over to the side with a thump, revealing Lightning splattered in the beast's blood and a triumphant look on her face.

"Who's the hero now?" she asked and chuckled. She walked over to his side and offered him her hand. He took her hand and got unsteadily to his feet.

"Fine. The title's yours. Can we please never do that again?" he mumbled.

"Sure thing."

Snow and Lightning could hear something along the lines of somebody hurling and turned around to see Fang spew something colorful out of her mouth. Vanille caught their eyes and gave a thumb up, signaling that Fang and herself were okay. Snow laughed as Fang started to throw up again while Lightning grimaced and looked away.

Suddenly there was a roar coming from right behind them. They turned around and saw a giant winged monster. "Right," Lightning groaned. Just as quickly as it had appeared, there was an enormous burst of a vivid light that blinded the l'Cie and sent the monster falling to the ground in defeat. Lightning looked around and saw the one responsible for their safety. "Hope," she whispered.

He made eye contact with her, giving a small smile before curing everybody. When everyone was in perfect condition they all walked closer to each other, forming a circle in the grass.

Sazh scratched his head as he looked at the area surrounding them. "I missed something, didn't I?"

"You sure did," Fang mumbled as she clutched her sore stomach.

"So, Light. Who's the real hero now?" Snow asked, elbowing her in the ribs.

Lightning folded her arms and looked Hope in the eye. "Good work, Hope," she said and walked briskly away in the direction of camp.

Hope beamed. "Thanks, Light."

**A/N – Keep in mind that I wrote this at night when I was drowsy and stuff, so there might be errors here and there. So, yeah. Don't forget to review. Thanks for reading.**


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